HARDY Al'PLK TREES. 229 



In order to encourage a tree to get onto its own roots the best nursery- 

 men ol'ten practice a kind of girdling on their grafts. After the grafts are 

 tied the grafter talces his knife and makes a torsional incision around the 

 scion directly above the root, cutting only the bark and not removing any. 

 The idea is to make the cut around the entire scion but not to connect the 

 cut. The grafts are then tied and packed away. At this incision or 

 girdle a callus will form and when the graft is planted roots will be 

 emitted from this incision. 



A different form of piece-root graft is the long scion sidegraft. In 

 making this graft the scion is cut 8 or 9 inches long and the root of two 

 inches is inserted into the side of the scion about two inches up from the 

 butt end. This graft is also planted up to the last butt and thus the 

 root is brought out of the danger zone. In this graft it is also desirable 

 to induce roots to grow from the scion by girdling. The scion will also 

 emit roots from the butt end below the union and also at the point of 

 union. This is a very desirable kind of graft and should be used if 

 only tender roots are available. 



DOUBLE WORKED TREES. 



The best kind of trees to set out in all these northwestern states is 

 the double worked tree. Such trees, however, are not made very often 

 because they are not in demand, nor are they well enough known. Such 

 trees will survive where every other kind of tree will fail. In producing 

 these trees first a long scion-piece root graft is made of some very hardy 

 variety. Hibernal and Virginia Crab are used almost exclusively because 

 these make the best stocks on which to top-graft and at the same time 

 they are of absolute hardiness. After the grafts are made they are also 

 girdled to induce roots from the scion. They are then planted as deeply 

 as possible so they will be on their own roots in a very short time. 

 When two years old they are top-grafted with the desired variety. When 

 the top is one year old or sometimes two the trees are dug in fall and 

 the foreign or stock root is cut oflf, leaving only the roots that were 

 emitted from the scion. The top is then somewhat cut back and now the 

 tree is ready for sale. Such a tree is well worth twice the price of other 

 trees and persons who know the value of such a tree will be willing to 

 pay more for it. Such trees should also be planted somewhat deeper than 

 they had stood before. Now we have a tree on Hibernal or Virginia Crab 

 roots and trunk which are the acme of hardiness and they do not possess 

 any undesirable traits. Such trees are immune from root-killing even in 

 the most severe locations and in the most severe winters. 



In conclusion, I wish to say that as soon as there will be a demand 

 for double worked trees the nurserymen will be willing to produce them. 



To partly insure a tree against winter-killing it should be planted 4 

 to 6 inches deeper than it had stood in the nursery. This will often save 

 many trees that would otherwise succumb. 



In many cases winter-killing is really only a kind of drying out of the 

 roots. So if the fall has been a dry one it is often a good plan to irrigate 



